monday menagerie

Here's a quick re-cap of some stuff from the weekend (including Monday, since it's my day off!)

• Someone left a gift on our porch for the girls Sunday morning. We thought it was a cute little kids' toy computer. Turns out, it's a real live computer built for kids. The girls have been loving it! Check it out here.
• Kim and I took down all the Christmas decorations today. She cleared the stuff out of the living room while I climbed up on the roof to grab the lights. We moved the tree to the curb. Kim re-arranged the living room and tidied up while I went hunting. She's quite the woman!
• Taking down the decorations, putting the trappings of Christmas away...it makes the end of the holiday season seem so final. I'm not sure I like it.
• It was 68 degrees today--68! I'm not ready to concede to Al Gore's global warming theories, but honestly--68 degrees? Not in January, right?
• Levi and I had fun watching the BCS Championship game tonight. LSU came roaring back from a 10 point deficit to claim their 2nd BCS title. I still think the Georgia Bulldogs were playing better ball at the end of the season than either LSU or OhiO State. Sorry, Alex.
• Baseball preseason workouts start tomorrow for State High. I'm not coaching this year, which is still a tough decision to live with. But I won't miss getting up at 5:30 to head to the gym every morning.
• Not coaching at State High was a difficult decision to make, but I know that God is going to bless that choice. I am going to have a lot of time to spend with my kids, and the opportunity to get outside and do more outdoorsy stuff.
• We've been given permission to get the ball rolling on a climbing wall and bouldering room in the Barn. This could be a great thing for our community! I've enlisted some of the great folks from State College who have a passion for climbing, and we should start construction in the next few weeks. Yeehaw!
• I've started watching the tv show Chuck while I toil on the treadmill, and I'm not sure how it's going to develop, but it's a fun show.
• Seeing me back on the treadmill has inspired our kids to start their own exercise programs. Sadie was off an on the treadmill quite a few times yesterday. In fact, at one point she stood off the belt, cranked the speed up to about 9 (max), then hopped on the moving belt--facing backwards. Her feet shot out from under her, dumping her on her head/back, which caught the speed of the moving sidewalk, which flipped her completely over. I watched the whole thing unfold, with my mouth wide open. She was more scared than hurt, and I don't think she'll try that again.
• I'm teaching a beginner's guitar class at church. We start tomorrow. I think I have about 9 students. Should be fun!

Wow, that turned out to be a much longer post than I anticipated. If you read the whole thing, I probably owe you a diet coke or something...